Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Maydani

Abu ʾl-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Naysābūrī al-Maydānī (died 27 October 1124) was an Arab scholar in Persia, an expert on Arabic philology and on Islamic adab (etiquette).^[1]

Little is known of al-Maydānī's life.^[2] He was a native of Nishapur (Arabic Naysābūr) and took his surnames from his place of residence off the maydān Ziyād. He was educated in Nishapur under the Qurʾānic scholars Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-Wāḥidī (died 1076), Yaʿqūb ibn Aḥmad al-Kurdī and ʿAlī al-Mujāshiʿī al-Farazdaqī. He in turn taught Abu ʾl-Ḥasan al-Bayhaqī.^[1] He died on 27 October 1124^[2] and was buried in the cemetery of the maydān quarter on 5 November 1124.^[1]

Fifteen works by al-Maydānī are known, of which the most famous is the paremiological Majmaʿ al-amthāl, which remains the "most popular collection of classical Arabic proverbs".^[1] It was produced around the same time as al-Zamakhsharī's collection in response to a request by the majlis (council) of Muntajab al-Mulk Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Arslān, the kātib (secretary) of the Sultan Aḥmad Sanjar.^[1][2] Many abridged versions of the Majmaʿ have been made, the first appearing in 1137. An edition with Turkish annotations appeared in 1627 and a full translation in 1877. A Latin translation by Georg Freytag, entitled Arabum Proverbia, was published at Bonn in 1838–1843. At least two versifications have also been made, the first in 1668.^[1]

Al-Maydānī's other works include an edition of the rasāʾil (letters) of Manṣūr al-Harawī (died 1048); an Arabic–Persian dictionary, completed in 1104; a critique of al-Jawharī's earlier Arabic dictionary; and various grammatical and philological works and commentaries.^[1]

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Bibliography[edit]

• Sadiq Feidi, Fatina (2016). La sabiduría árabe antigua reflejada en los proverbios de al-Maydānī: traducción y análisis paremiológico de un corpus seleccionado (PDF) (Doctoral thesis). Complutense University of Madrid.
• Sellheim, R. (1991). "al-Maydānī". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume VI: Mahk–Mid. Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 913–914. ISBN 978-90-04-08112-3.